Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/257

 and was professed of the four vows 2 Feb. 1676–7. In 1675 he was prefect of St. Omer. Afterwards he was sent to the English mission in the Lancashire district, and his name appears in the list of Titus Oates's intended victims. In 1686 he was in the London district, and was appointed by James II to be one of the royal preachers and chaplains. On the outbreak of the revolution in December 1688 he escaped to the Continent, and he is mentioned in 1689 as living in France with several other English priests. In 1692 he was instructor of the tertian fathers of the Society of Jesus at Ghent, and in 1693 he was again in the Lancashire district, where he died on 19 Feb. 1708–9.

His works are: 1. ‘Sermon on Spiritual Leprosy, delivered on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, 1686, before Queen Catherine,’ London, 1687, 4to; reprinted in ‘A Select Collection of Catholick Sermons,’ London, 1741, ii. 427. 2. ‘Sermon on Catholic Loyalty, preached before the King and Queen at Whitehall, the 30th of January 1687,’ London, 1688, 8vo; reprinted in the same collection, i. 223. 3. ‘The Life of Lady Warner, of Parham in Suffolk, in Religion called Sister Clare of Jesus; written by a Catholic Gentleman (N. N.),’ London, 1691, 8vo; second edition, ‘to which is added an abridgment of the Life of Mrs. E. Warner, in religion Mary Clare,’ London, 1692, 8vo; third edition, London, 1696, 8vo; fourth edition, London, 1858, 8vo. 4. ‘Rules and Instructions for the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception’ (anon.), 1703, 12mo.

[De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus; Foley's Records, vii. 686, 969, and Introd. p. civ; Jones's Popery Tracts, pp. 454, 456.] 

NEVILLE, GEOFFREY (d. 1225), baron, was the younger son of Alan de Neville (d. 1191?) [q. v.] and nephew of Gilbert de Neville, an ancestor of the Nevilles of Raby [see ]. He was probably connected with Hugh de Neville [q. v.] Geoffrey first appears as the recipient of grants from John in 1204, and from 1205 was a constant witness of royal charters. In 1207 he was king's chamberlain, an office which he held till the end of his life, and in the same year received the custody of Wiltshire (Rot. Litt. Claus.) In 1212 he witnessed the treaty between John and the Count of Boulogne. In 1213 he was sent on an embassy to Raymond, count of Toulouse, and Peter, king of Aragon. Next year he went to Poitou, to secure for John the support of the Poitevin barons, and his fidelity was rewarded by further grants of lands belonging to the barons in opposition, and of the shrievalty of Yorkshire. In 1215 Neville was appointed seneschal of Poitou; but on 1 Oct. of that year he was with John at Lincoln, and, receiving the grant of Scarborough Castle, was employed during the winter in defending it and York against the rebel barons. Early in 1216 he was at Newcastle on a similar errand, and received grants of money to enable him to fortify Scarborough. Faithful to John to the end, Neville had his appointments of chamberlain and seneschal of Poitou and Gascony confirmed on the accession of Henry III.

In 1217 he signed the reissue of Magna Charta (Registrum Malmesburiense, i. 38); in 1218 he was present when Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d. 1240) [q. v.] submitted to Henry III, and was commissioned to take possession of certain castles in Wales. But next year he was back again in Gascony, opposing Hugh de Lusignan, who was besieging Niort. In April 1219 he wrote to Henry, threatening to start for the Holy Land unless he were better supported from home; in July he wrote again, saying that unless steps were taken to defend Poitou and Gascony it was no good his remaining there; in October he resigned the seneschalship (, Royal and Historical Letters, passim). He landed at Dover on 1 Nov. 1219, leaving William Gauler in charge of Gascony. He left behind him debts incurred in the king's service, and in 1220 the citizens of Dax petitioned for repayment. In the same year he resumed his duties as sheriff of Yorkshire, and was despatched to Scotland on business connected with the marriage of the king's sister to Alexander II. On 23 Jan. 1221 he was summoned to meet Henry at Northampton to concert measures against the Earl of Albemarle, who had seized Fotheringay Castle. In 1222 he paid 100l. to the king for the guardianship of Alexander de Neville, probably a second cousin, who held lands in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland. On 4 Dec. in that year Neville was commissioned to see that the compromise arranged between Hugh de Lusignan and certain towns in Gascony was carried out; in the following year Hugh wrote to Henry complaining of the conduct of Neville's successor, and recommending his reappointment. This suggestion was apparently adopted. At any rate, Neville was in Poitou in 1224, and again with Richard, earl of Cornwall, next year. He received in the same year a grant of two hundred marks for his custody of Pickering and Scarborough Castles, but died apparently in Gascony in October 1225. 